52 THE DESCENT OF MAN 



by whicli tlie wliole organization is rendered in some degree 

 plastic. 



X In the United States, above' one million soldiers, who 

 served in the late war, were measured, and the States in 

 which they were born and reared were recorded." From 

 this astonishing number of observations it is proved that 

 local influences of some kind act directly on stature; and 

 we further learn that ' ' the State where the physical growth 

 has in great measure taken place, and the State of birth, 

 which indicates the ancestry, seem to exert a marked influ- 

 ence on the stature." For instance, it is established "that 

 residence in the Western States, during the years of growth, 

 tends to produce increase of stature. " On the other hand, 

 it is certain that with sailors their life delays growth, as 

 shown "by the great difference between the statures of 

 soldiers and sailors at the ages of seventeen and eighteen 

 years. " ll^ Mr. B. A. Gould endeavored to ascertain the 

 nature of the influences which thus act on stature; but he 

 arrived only at negative results, namely, that they did not 

 relate to climate, the elevation of the land, soil, nor even 

 "in any controlling degree" to the abundance or the need 

 of the comforts of life. This latter conclusion is directly 

 opposed to that arrived at by Villerm^, from the statistics 

 of the height of the conscripts in different parts of France. 

 When we compare the diflierences in stature between the 

 Polynesian chiefs and the lower orders within the same 

 islands, or between the inhabitants of the fertile volcanic 

 and low barren coral islands of the same ocean," or again 

 between the Fuegians on the eastern and western shores 

 of their country, where the means of subsistence are very 

 different, it is scarcely possible to avoid the conclusion that 



11 "Investigations in Military and Anthrop. Statistics," etc., 1869, by B A 

 Gould, pp. 93, lOl, 126, 131, 134. 



'8 For the Polynesians, see Prichard's "Physical Hist, of Manlsind," vol. 

 v., 184T, pp. 145, 283. Also Godron, "De I'Bspece," torn. ii. p. 289. There 

 is also a remarkable difEerence in appearance between the closely allied Hindus 

 inhabiting the Upper Ganges and Bengal ; see Blphinstone's ' 'History of India, " 

 vol. i. p. 324. 



